The leaders joint statement, which was obtained by The Washington Post and will be released today, represents a qualified political victory for the White House. Bush officials resisted calls from allies to adopt a more ambitious framework for addressing climate change; foreign leaders managed to include a limited endorsement of mandatory carbon emissionscuts and language linking global warming to human activity.

The twopage document, a drastically slimmeddown version of earlier G8 drafts, states that although some uncertainties about climate change remain, we know enough to act now and to put ourselves on a path to slow, and, as science justifies, stop and then reverse the growth of greenhouse gases.

It also suggests that human activities contribute in large part to increases in greenhouse gases associated with the warming of our earth surface, and says all the countries that have pledged to bring greenhouse gases down to 1990 levels by 2012 as part of the Kyoto Protocol welcome its entry into force and will work to make it a success.

Every G8 member except for the United States Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol. officials managed to excise swaths of text that called for ambitious greenhouse gas reductions and committed G8 countries to spending a specific amount on environmentally friendly projects. They managed to eliminate the opening sentence, Our world is warm michaels kors outlet ing, as well as lengthy descriptions of how melting glaciers and rising sea levels reflect recent climate change.

Faryar Shirzad, President Bushs deputy national security adviser and lead G8 climate negotiator, told reporters yesterday that he was pleased with the talks progress.

Although he did not comment in detail on the final joint statement, he said the summit had allowed participants to find the common ground and one that reflects a series of goals that the president has long advocated, which is to look at the issue of climate as a part of a broader set of interrelated issues of economic development, energy security, dealing with the problems of pollution, and then through that also dealing with the issues of climate change.Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, called the agreement utterly meaningless, the weakest statement on climate change ever made by the G8. The G8 leaders did not agree on a single concrete action to address climate change. Not one new dollar wa michaels kors outlet s committed by any country to develop technologies they just told the World Bank to go do it with no new financing.

Other activists took a more sanguine view, saying the text emphasized the urgent threat climate change poses and affirmed the need to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions.

Opponents of mandatory carbon reductions such as William OKeefe, chief executive of the conservative George C. Marshall Institute, hailed the communique as evidence that other countries are edging closer to the administrations view of climate change.

Reality is setting in, we are where we are, said michaels kors outlet OKeefe, whose think tank is funded in part by oil companies that object to carbon limits. But we do know theres a longterm risk, and nations need to cooperate in addressing it. The solution will be technology, not through energy starvation. michaels kors outlet